


in your eyes ; hope and strength

by Chaol



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, Their Love Is So, pure and soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26588356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaol/pseuds/Chaol
Summary: When Azriel watches from the shadows, Elain misinterprets what his hovering means. How will she feel when he clears the air?
Relationships: Elain Archeron/Azriel
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	in your eyes ; hope and strength

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aelins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelins/gifts).



> This is a one-shot prompt from Tumblr that I opted to just post here! For storage and easy archiving of my writing. Clearly I cannot get enough Elriel. No one touch me I love the crap out of them.
> 
> Prompt: “Why do you have to look at me like that? It’s making me weak, please stop.” from Feysand on Tumblr

A man of shadows and secrets watches a woman who shines in sunlight. Golden brown hair catching each breath of autumn’s glinting sunset, a tendril of her hair catching in the wind as it breaks free from its gathering at the nape of her neck. Elain kneels in the garden, hands working the soil - to bring life. Some moments she stares into the distance as if -- caught in between this world and the next. 

It is easy to lurk in the shadows of the house, there he knows he will not disturb her reverie. Yet he has been caught, luminous eyes - more wise than her years cast to where he has hidden with a smile that just pricks the corners of her mouth, “Why do you have to look at me like that? It’s making me weak -- please stop..” 

Azriel would do anything she asked, except perhaps that. Because the eyes that follow her are the eyes of love, the eyes of adoration. Stepping into the sunlight she basks in, he kneels beside her -- “You will never be weak Elain. Not because of me, not because of anyone. There is strength in goodness, as much as there is in steel.” Words spoken gently, reaching to lift an offending weed from the fall blooming bulbs bed. 

“---Kindness does not cut, it does not defeat your enemies.” A stab of her trowel into the soil as she turns to look at him, a furrow between her brows. 

“For that, there are swords, and there are soldiers. But it is kindness that grows. When you live in a world without goodness -- without kindness, you see the strength in it.” 

Knowing what he means, she reaches for his hand, fingers intertwined through his. Dirt staining her delicate hand, a smile lifts the corner of his mouth as he watches her. “You are an extraordinary woman Elain, I beg you - do not feel weak. I do not watch out of -- concern for your well being… but out of admiration.. I am -- coated in blood, I have spent so long destroying, eroding regimes and things from within - that I do not think I ever had a gift for life.”

Elain rises from her knees, brushing the dirt from her knees and reaching for his hands to pull him up. “Then look at me, look at me -- and I will look at you and I will see someone who despite seeing the worst of it all, is still kind, and is still good..” Facing him squarely, her chin lifted up as she met his gaze. 

Azriel could not help the smile that softened his features, “The task you set before me -- is one I will excel at. You are --” he pauses as he searches for the right words to fully express his feelings without frightening her, “I look at you and I see hope -- and I find myself drawn to that, to you --”

A moment's pause, time itself seemed to still as she raised their joined hands to her lips - a gentle kiss brushed across the deepest of the scars. Her words murmured gently against marks on his hands, hands that when he looked at them - he only saw the blood that would never fully wash away. “I would like to be your hope I think - it would make me feel very strong I think.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you like it please leave kudos and comments so I know to keep posting these little short things vs just big long projects! <3 I appreciate every single one <3


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